While Apple managed to surpass analysts' profit forecasts for the fiscal 2013 first quarter, the company's stock took a tumble as investors worry over Apple's ability to maintain steady growth with new products.

Apple reported a revenue of $54.5 billion for the quarter ended December 29, 2012, compared to $46.33 billion in the year-ago quarter. The tech giant just missed analyst expectations of $54.73 billion.

Apple also earned a net profit of $13.1 billion ($13.81 a share) compared to $13.1 billion ($13.87 a share) a year ago. Profit clearly remained pretty flat, but it exceeded analysts' expectations of $13.44 a share.

The iDevice maker also noted that it had record iPhone sales for the quarter at 47.8 million (compared to 37 million in the year-ago quarter). It also had an uptick in iPad sales, from 15.4 million in the year ago quarter to 22.9 million in the most recent quarter.

“We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.”

While Apple did okay for the quarter, investors are concerned with the company's flat profit due to higher manufacturing costs and also worry whether Apple can keep up its momentum with product popularity. Many new devices are hitting the market at lower prices and offer newer, better features. For instance, the iPad's market share was bested by Google's Nexus 7 tablet in Japan mainly due to cost differences.

Apple's stock has lost nearly 25 percent of its value since September 2012 ($170 billion in market value).

In after-hours trading today, Apple's stock fell over 10 percent.

Looking forward to fiscal 2013 second quarter, Apple expects a revenue of between $41 billion and $43 billion.

I don't know what causes people to underrate Windows Phone so much. It's a solid OS (coming from android), that brings things to the table that neither of the other two do. I don't think it's perfect, but the argument of being "too late to the party" is silly. RIM and win mobile were as firmly entrenched into the market that the iphone stumbled into as android and iOS are now that WP8 has come into it. I don't think WP8 will have 80% market share in 4 years or anything, but it's a solid, competent competitor.

Also, you're completely missing the point of the article (I believe).

If I sell 100 lollipops at a dollar each, and it takes a dime to make them, I make 90 dollars.

If next year, I sell 115 lollipops at a dollar each, but it takes 20 cents to make them, I'm only making 92 dollars. I've experienced growth (15%), but I'm hardly making any more money. Growth is great for market share, but it means nothing for profits if manufacturing costs offset it.

quote: If I sell 100 lollipops at a dollar each, and it takes a dime to make them, I make 90 dollars.

If next year, I sell 115 lollipops at a dollar each, but it takes 20 cents to make them, I'm only making 92 dollars. I've experienced growth (15%), but I'm hardly making any more money. Growth is great for market share, but it means nothing for profits if manufacturing costs offset it.

Ding ding, nailed it.

iPhones cost more to make than the previous model, offsetting how increasingly popular they are. The popularity of the lower profit iPad Mini eating into regular iPad sales is also to blame here. I don't think that'll go away either, not when iPad Minis will eventually double display resolution, keeping its profit margins low.

A massive increase in revenue ($55BN, wtf) with a reduction in margins resulting in the same profits as the prior year is a negative thing.

Looks like they won't be reaping the rewards of the iPhone until the 5S comes out. The exact same thing happened between the iPhone 4 (reduced profits on new hardware) and the iPhone 4S (increased profit on mature product).

I know I am not alone in my sentiment about Win Phone, and that is that it may well be a very good OS, but it is taking some of the things I hate most about IOS (locking it down, not allowing other app stores, etc) taking about my choice. I don't want somebody to tell me what I can install, from where. I want to be able to do what i want with my device when I want to do it. Due to that, I would probably go to an idevice before MS since they at least have a good app library.